Cross River House Of Assembly To Support Campaign Against Measles

By Our Correspondent

The Cross River State House of Assembly has pledged to support the campaign against measles in the State.

Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. John Gaul made the pledge recently when a delegation of the Department of Community and Primary Health paid an advocacy visit at his office in Calabar.

Hon Lebo, who lamented the devastating effect of measles on children, further reiterated the readiness of the House to fully back the fight against this deadly childhood disease.

He said that Legislators would take the campaign down to their constituencies and would equally provide logistics assistance to encourage the fight against measles in the state.

Speaking, the House Committee Chairman on Health Hon. Ekpo Ekpo Okon stated that an integrated approach would be employed towards combating measles and other child-killer diseases, assuring that the measles scourge would be reduced to zero-level in the state.

Earlier, the Special Adviser, Department of Community and Primary Health, Dr. Betta Edu, sued for synergy between the House of Assembly and the Department of Community and Primary Health in the fight against child-killer diseases while soliciting the assistance of members to enable the department take the campaign against these deadly diseases to every village in the state.

Dr. Edu who hinted that the state-wide campaign against measles would be flagged-off on the 28th January, 2015, disclosed that her mandate among others was to ensure that children within 9months – 5years must be immunized in every community in the state.

In his submission, the state Coordinator, World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tom Igbo emphasized the efforts of the WHO at eradicating measles in Cross River State.

Dr. Igbo added that it was the core target of the World Health Organisation to achieve 100% measles free society in the state.